This study investigated the role of product design on brand equity by investigating the effect of consumers' perception about product design on brand equity. For this purpose, this research essentially verified the importance of product design on product evaluation. With the verification of the importance of product design, this study examined consumers' perceptions of design and found several generalisable types of design image across product categories. After finding types of design image, in order to verify the importance of consumers' perception of product design on brand equity, this research investigated the effect of the design image which can be formed by the response of product design on brand image and equity. For the purpose of the research, this study is composed of three empirical studies. In the first step, the effect of design attributes on consumers' product evaluation was investigated. The results show that when the design attribute is provided to consumers, they use this information as an important criterion to evaluate product quality. Moreover, providing the criteria for evaluation of the design attribute enhanced the effect of design attribute on product evaluation. Consumers can pay attention to the design attribute more because consumers process the design attribute information easily by providing the criteria for the evaluation of it. In the second step, consumers' psychological responses to product design were examined and a framework of design image dimensions and its generalisable 43- item design image scale were developed. Design image is composed of six image dimensions which are uniqueness, aesthetics, utility, femininity, nobleness and compactness. In the third step, the relationships among design image, brand image and brand equity were investigated, and the effects of design image on brand image and equity were compared between utilitarian and symbolic products. Design image has significant effects on brand image and equity in both products, and design image has a direct effect on brand equity in the symbolic product.

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This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.